KHARTOUM: Four Sudanese men accused of killing a US aid worker funded the murder with a donation from a Saudi Arabian man and money left over from a failed bomb plot, the Sudanese police’s chief investigator told a court on Monday.

The four men are charged with murdering John Granville, a 33-year-old officer with the US Agency for International Development, and his driver, Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39.

Both were shot dead while returning home from New Year’s Eve celebrations in Khartoum early on Jan. 1 in a crime that shocked westerners in the capital, previously seen as one of Africa’s safest cities.

One of the four defendants received a donation of 35,000 riyals ($9,300) from a Saudi man called Al Naim, the Sudanese police’s chief investigator told Khartoum North court on Monday.

Al Naim told the defendant to use the money to launch a jihad against westerners in Somalia, investigator Abdelrahim Ahmed Abdelrahim said.

But the defendant, Abdel Raouf Abu Zaid Mohamed, instead decided to use the money to target Americans who he thought were trying to spread Christianity in Sudan, the investigator said.

The investigator added members of the group also used 9,000 Sudanese pounds ($4,300) left over from a failed bomb plot against western embassies in Khartoum.

In earlier hearings, the prosecutor said the four suspects used the money for logistics and to buy weapons.—Reuters